Rewards for Recycling, not Penalties

Is the glass half full or half empty? There are two sides to every story. These age-old sayings can apply to just about anything - including the issue of using RFID tags to track recycling habits of residents in various cities across the United States.

Now, first off I don' think anyone would argue that recycling what you can is a good thing, right? Yes, there are companies that use the information obtained from the RFID tags attached to recycling bins to monitor and "punish" those who aren't recycling what they should and the media has been all over that aspect of it. However, there are other programs that reward residents for recycling rather than punishing them and where has the media coverage been for that? One such company, Rewards for Recycling, is a Metalcraft customer and has had success utilizing the recycling activity information obtained using RFID technology with a more positive outcome.

With Rewards for Recycling's program (doesn't the name just say it all?) residents are awarded credit to their web-based account which can be redeemed for items and offers from local businesses. So not only are residents being encouraged and rewarded for recycling, local businesses benefit through increased foot traffic. To read the full case study go to the Metalcraft website at http://www.idplate.com/ or click here.

So, is using RFID technology for tracking recycling activity a good thing or a bad thing? It all depends on how you look at it and I for one see the glass as half full.